Chloroplast genome characteristics and phylogenetic analysis of Neohymenopogon parasiticus (Rubiaceae)

Neohymenopogon parasiticus (Wall.) Bennet, known as Xizangan lilac or stone tiger, is a small shrub belonging to tribe Rubieae of Rubiaceae. In this study, the whole chloroplast genome sequence of N. parasiticus was first assembled, which has a typical quadripartite structure, with a total length of 154,488 bp, including a large single-copy region (LSC) of 84,618 bp in length, a small single-copy region (SSC) of 17,066 bp, and a pair of inverted repeat regions (IRa and IRb) of 52,804 bp each. The total guanine and cytosine content (GC content) is 37.8%, and a total of 130 genes were annotated, including 8 rRNA genes, 37 tRNA genes, and 85 protein-coding genes. Phylogenetic analysis indicates that N. parasiticus is closely related to Foonchewia coriacea (Dunn) Z.Q. Song.